FUTURLOGICS a system of prospective thinking:
by james n. hall


COPYRIGHT © 1983 BY
JAMES NORMAN HALL

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       without express written permission of the publisher

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Chapter XII

PREPARATION


PURPOSE

     A fundamental law of physical science states that for every action
there is an opposite and equal reaction.  All matter is motion interacts
with itself and adjacent material.  This interaction is immediate.  This
law applies except in the interaction of living organisms with material
or with other organisms.  In life, action upon material existence is
prompted either by a knowledge of the future or an instinct.
     The cause-effect principle is important to the concept here developed:
mere existence causes things to happen.  These effects of our
existence are willed or they are involuntary.  When they are willed, we
enter a special category of material interaction.  Whenever we alter
conditions and cause specific effects to occur, we are preparing.
Anything that causes a desired effect, and is done purposely, is
preparing.  When we learn to control who we are and how we do
things--engineering them to specific designs and plans--we are preparing,
even if our preparedness has become habitual and below awareness.
     As defined in the section on waiting, foreknowledge is knowing
what to do with the knowledge of the future we have,  and using this
knowledge to benefit or control conditions we would desire or intend
to be.  Perfect foreknowledge (if we could achieve the ideal) would
conceivably reflect a natrurally purposeful action in everything we do.
(We would, by the natural effect of knowing who to relate with the
presen, based upon what we know of the future,--do everthing to
cause all to work for our good.
     The key word to preparation is purpose.  Without intent there can
be no preparation.  With no idea of the future we have no design or
plan.  The more we know, the more our acts become purposeful.
Also, being prepared for the future in itself frees the mind to think
further ahead, because preparation allows us more time and freedom
as we enjoy the fruits of our preparedness.
   

THE FIRST MOTIVE OF PREPARATION IS SURVIVAL

     The squirrel gathers nuts and the bear eats himself fat.  Some
biological clock triggers an instinct that impels activities essential to
ready the animals for the winter.  Many of the things we do to ready
ourselves are as crucial.  We gather the harvest, fill the store houses to
meet our needs of the seasons changes.  These activities are so familiar
they become custom and routine.   We often do not realize they are in
reality preparations to survive change.  But a moment's reflection tells
us, were we to have two winters back to back, how difficult life would
be if we had only been ready for one.  Our formulas to meet change are
so fragile any change in the economy of the times and seasons upsets
a delicate balance.  If nature were not so regular and predictable life
and civilization as we now know it would not be known.
     All preparatory action strengthens and gathers resources to meet a
foreseen condition or event.  In a dangerous environment most of the
activities of man is to get ready for the next test of survival.  It is
constant practice and exercise to strengthen and quicken the reflexes.
The soldiers life exemplifies readying with an eye for the possible
battle.  The the soldier preparation and survival are the same.
     Safety and comfort is the time we should use to prepare for the
day when danger and hardship come.  All too often we become lax
during the good times letting go the rigorous action of preparatory
exercise.


THE SECOND MOTIVE OF PREPARATION IS PROGRESS

     After we gain more power over our environment we then seek to
use the principle of preparation for progress.  We learn how to do
things which will offset or eliminate the effect of nature.  After we
learn to survive, we then use the techniques of preparation to advance
ourselves.  Through our desire to improve ourselves, we turn preparation 
to progressive action which enhances our standard of living.
     Preparation for progress requires time from our needs to apply
ourselves to enhancement of our lifestyle.  Many students have discovered
this when they have had to drop our of school to earn enough 
money to get back into school.  Unfortunately, many never earn
enough to return.  To break the yoke of working or preparing only to
meet the needs of survival is an age old problem.  It has been theorized
that slavery in ancient times gave free men the time and resources to
discover things that enable modern man to overcome his basic needs.
A more positive theory is that man learns to produce a surplus by
resorting to the techniques of specialization, which makes production
more efficient and, therefore, overproduction could supply others
who also specialized.  Then this freed man to use his resources to
prepare and learn.  In either case, it is necessary to have extra resources
and extra time to apply the preparation activity to progress and
creativity.
     If we have prepared well, we shall soon see that our preparations
will bring returns that enable us the time and means to further prepare
and progress.


ACCURACY IN PREDICTION MAKES PREPARATION MORE EFFECTIVE

    If we imagine the future through the retrospective modes we
arrive at the absolute future.  History dictates that we prepare for
things which are generally perpetual and recurring.  No one will say
that this in unnecessary, but we omit the fact that new things are
happening now for which there are no precedents.  The observational
mode of the natural future which results restricts the future to the
interpolation and extrapolations of what is observed.  Since we cannot
see or hear the future as it really is, we are limited, and it is so with the
rest of the modes.  Preparing for everything we imagine the future to
hold would soon deplete the time and means we have to apply to
progressive and creative pursuits.  But if we prepare for the real future,
as it is gained through the techniques of Futurlogis and DMP, then
we use our efforts in the most efficient way possible.  The rewards are
increased, and the increased time and resources make progress more
available.
     The old saying that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself
makes sense if we realize that preparing for everything we see in the
imaginary future is impossible.  Specific and accurate prediction will
eliminate the all-direction type of preparation that this kind of future
will produce.  If we knew the exact time a thief would break into our
house, we then could have a fitting welcome for his intrusion.  Since
we don't know when we might expect him,  we live every moment in
fear he might come tonight.  We then expend time and money for the
just-in-case type of preparation.  If we fear the future generally we
will need assurances to dispel the barricades which deplete our
resources, and find ourselves back to the survival level of preparation.
     If we stored all the basic needs of survival such as water, food,
clothing, etc., enough to last for six months, the fear that drives us to
the activity of preparation only for survival can be changed.  In fact,
persons who have done this find that they progres more and can
concentrate on activities that help them to move forward.  When we
are motivated to prepare by creativity instead of fear, we can use this
important activity to improve and enhance our style and standard of
living.  Responding to only the negative aspects of the future depresses
growth and creativity.  Having a storeroom of necessities through an
artificial measure can alleviate fear and can be a means of optimism.
    Preparation helps us predict, as it frees us from the necessary
routines that bury us and prevent our looking ahead.  Prediction, on
the other hand, helps us prepare more effectively.  Futurlogics and
DMP should make all preparation progressive and creative.


PREPARATION HELPS US TO UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT

   Few of us can meet sudden occurrence with instant response.  In
order to build reflexive speed we have to practice the action to some
cue or stimulus to ready us to meet the actual event.  Practice on the
piano readies us for some perfect rendition to come.  Fire drills are for
the possibility of real fire.  The training of soldiers is to harden the
civilian personality to the confusion and stress of combat.  These kind
of preparations are everywhere.
    If a student would study his lessons in such a way that he learned
everything he could on his own, and then he would take notes of the
parts he could not learn by himself, then when he gets to the lecture
hall he could ignore the material he already knows and concentrate on
the teacher's presentation and could ask the questions which ming
ease his difficulties.  By freeing the mind from the obvious before class
in his preparations, he can be more attentive to the less obvious and
more difficult aspects of the lesson.  Proper preparation can make the
mind see things that ordinarily escape on the first observation.  How
many of us have seen a movie the second time and seen many things
we missed in the first viewing?
     Today as a new report flashes across our television screen we
know that we will hear the follow-up newscasts for weeks to come,
explaining all that the event means.  It is true when something happens
to us we will then spend time to analyze and evaluate the implications
of the event.  It seems that we cannot fully appraise the present without
a time to fully absorb the relevance and impact it has.  The present is
understood in terms of the past because we wait until it has solidified
into pass experience.  We are retrospectively oriented and we need to
look at everything as if it were past.  Preparation helps us get the jump
on events so we are able to witness as trained and proficient observers.
     Today things are changing so rapidly that we can't fully understand
most of these things except in a superficially scanned form.  We
are in an age of specialization.  One expert declares what we have to
take for granted or we will not be able utilze his knowledge.  Then
again, we have mind robots (computers) which take the labor out of
vast computations.  These machines are another kind of expert, and we
take their 'word' because it takes too much of our time to figure it all
out by ourselves.  We believe from the surface level of experience or we
spend more time than we are allowed to relate to the new generation
of machines and training programs.  Besides believing what the experts
tell us, we must by necessity take alternative of preparing ourselves
to be more efficient.  Today we would be overwhelmed by the daily
course of life if we did not prepare ourselves.  Living itself can be
interpreted as a form of preparation.


STAGES OF PREPARATION

     There is a natural order to the phase of preparation, and though
all of them may be fused into one, then can also be seen as distinct and
definitely separate.  For the purpose of analysis we will break the
process into component parts.  Later we will study the operation as a
synthesized  whole.  The essential elements of preparation are as 
follows:
     1.  By prediction or other means we are informed of the future
and the events that are to come.  Reflecting, we realize that we have
not ready resources nor the powers to meet an oncoming event.  If we
decide that events cannot be changed, then the action of preparation is
initiated.
     2.  To structure the preparation activities we should determine the
time period allowed before the event is upon us.  A precise statement
of the amount of time will make the arrangement of preparation much
easier to coordinate with present activites.
     3.  We must evaluate the nature of the event or environment to
come so that the problem is not misunderstood.  This encourages
definitive action and thought to generate the types of things we must
do to meet and endure events that will be unchangeable,  if we do not
prepare.
     4.  We must then decide the kind of change needed to meet the
event.  Here, we review the present resources we can draw upon to begin
the change.  We determine the things we can change that will make a
difference.  We compare this to what would happen if we did nothing.
     5.  Timing--When to start the things we will do is the nest step in
building up to preparation activity.  Procrastination and delay caused
many plans and preparations to fail.  Getting started is crucial to any
activity concerning the future since delay will bring the future to the
fore where advantages of advanced warning are lost, and then it is
beyond our control.  Foreknowledge is of no importance unless we are
able to implement and exercise it to obtain control and efficiency
while there is time to effect change.
     6.  Feedback, seeing the development of the preparatory activity
progress according to expectations and design is next.  Check for
errors or changes in the goals of the total activity.  Any changes will
throw us back to the beginning stages of preparation--at least for
reappraisal.
     7.  There may be pure waiting or stalled activity just before the
event arrives.  Examples of this are quite dramatic, as in the case of the
areospace venture with a pause for the countdown.  At these times we
are very conscious of the passage of time.  However, this is not always
the case, and a general statement can be misleading.

     This is the preparatory build-up to meet future events.  The more
general the pattern we use to plan our preparatory activities, the
better.  Specific behavior is not conducive to the awareness of the full
temporal environment.
     Preparation is either for the natural future or the synthetic future
that comes through the activities of man.  Preparing for the future we
think will be will shape the quaility and effectiveness of any preparatory
activity.  The general phases of preparation follow through the
same steps for any given future, however, the feedback from any
specific mode but the mode of Futurlogics will be more discordant.
Preparation will be positive and progressive if we will study the
Futurlogics system of prospective thought.


REASON FOR PROCRASTINATING PREPARATION

     First, the more we can handle the abstract and intellectual, the
more we are able to think prospectively,  Self-dicipline and intelligence
make preparations more real and meaningful because we can see
the results easier.  Lack of intelligence brings about procrastination.
     Secondly, since it takes energy to prepare, we should then find the
law of physics which tells us that for every force there exists and equal
and opposite force.  Sometimes we lack the resources to accomplish
the object of our preparation.  The hand-to-mouth existence that some
are forced into makes the extra energy to face the future beyond their
means.
     Thirdly, habits are a big part of everything we do.  If we constantly
put off preparation for tomorrow soon we find that it is a habit.
We procrastinate until the reality of the event is upon us and we
then experience the sudden stress of urgency and lack of time to
adequately prepare.
     Forthly, we get into the habit of putting off for tomorrow because
the event is so far into the future its remoteness tempts us to say that
we have  "plenty of time."  This suggestion to our subconscious may
also start the habit we mentioned.
     Vague and poor prediction will often make the defined need of
preparation diffuse and unusable.  This fuzzy look at the future will
stultify action and this, in itself, will produce the stall of 
procrastination.
     Each stage of preparation will have problems attached to it, and
this is enough to prevent activity.  If we see clearly the stages of
preparation, we can overcome such inherent problems with less
resistence.


SUMMARY

    What must we do to prepare?  We must create a synthetic future
that counteracts the natural future.  Nature provides the oncoming
event, and the laws of nature are the key to what we must do.  The
synthetic future impacts on the natural future.  The more we know, the
greater the bearing it will have on what we do and how long we have to
do it.  Preparation is work, and work is subject to the laws of physics.
Therefore, work is the essential ingredient to preparation.
     Information of the future is the first step.  A clear view of the
future enables us to more closely experience present conditions.  The
reverse is also true.  The more we know of what is presently happening
the easier we can see the flow of inertia of present situations.
    The future has a schedule and a time separation between each
level of ulterior reality.  A significant event in the future will happen in
a certain passage of time and then that event will become present.  The
amount of time is the framing and limiting factor of all considerations
to preparation.  Obviously, if there is not time before an event will
occur it will be impossible to prepare.  A good feeling for the temporal
extenion of reality to its ulterior forms will make preparation definitive.
When and where a thing will happen is essential to stuctured
preparation activity.
     Preparation is work and work requires energy and force.  The
next step is the employment and deployment of forces and resources 
to bring about change.


UNDERSTANDING CHANGE     

     If brute force alone solves opposition, then brute force is all that
is needed.  But it solves only a few problems.  Force is always limited--
we always apply force with some intelligence.
     Seldom is brute force the best answer, as the cure is usually worse 
than the ailment.  Technology offers a wise application of force to
bring about change.  Also, where people are concerned we must
consider emotions and ideas.  Engineering social structures is a case in
point where it is obvious that brute force--or any force-- will cause
increasing opposition.  Changing material is one thing, and changing
people is something entirely different.  The ration of force to intelligence
is a formula in every operation that must be considered in the
light of long range effect and consequences.
     Opposition to change is not always detrimental because it can be
used as a pivot to effect changes that would not otherwise be possible.
All change is met with oppositition and this principle cannot be 
escaped, so the best thing we can do is use the opposition to further
produce the desired goal.  This is where intelligence is a prime factor in
preparing.  Pure intelligence is a force with no opposition.
     We should be aware of opposition, and this suggests the next
step--feedback.  We must be able to get information about our progress
toward the overall goal.   Communication between the implementors 
form reasonable assurances of acquisition of desired goal is necessary.
This all suggests a self-consciousness of action with a cognizance
of all that is ongoing.
     Waiting as a step in preparation should be such that constant
readiness is in the background.  We must remain alert even through
normal activities occur.  The activities of preparation may be so
absorbing that consciousness is lost.  We must develop and alarm
system that will bring us to attention.  Awareness of time in relation to
future reality must not be lost.
     Concentration is a way of emphasizing force, and it is also a way
of diminishing intelligence in other ways.  It is a real art to  know when
to concentrate and when to scan the entire panorama.  Sometimes we
must see the forest to understand the tree; also we must understand
the individual tree to really know the forest.  While the Bible says that
we should "take no thought for the morrow" it also says that we
should be looking forward to that better day--in hope.  We should
balance all the phases of truth: past, present, and future--experience,
knowledge, and foreknowldedge.


THE PREPARED INDIVIDUAL

     We esteem the individual who has become prepared with many
degrees of university certification.  The training he received makes him
ready to meet the most advanced lifestyles the future has to offer.
Education is the fundamental element to preparation.  We must make
available for our children the best knowledge handed down to us
through books.  A person who has an understanding of the best books
is esteemed by our culture.  Democracy is founded on education.  To
give the government to the people requires that they be prepared to
make decisions to conduct affairs of government.  We must be equipped
with knowledge to meet with equanamity the future as it emerges
on the shores of time.  The tides of the future are like the tides of the 
ocean.  On the very shore we meet with the power and force of the
waves.  Futurlogics hopes to be the boat that takes us out beyond the
shoreline to where conditions are generated.  We cannot stand upon
the shore.  For the ocean is best know by the sailors of the deep.